>> we're asking middle and high school students to produce a five to six minute documentary. awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes including a grand prize of $5,000. the deadline is january 20th. for more information go to our website, student cam.org. >> friday morning, we're live in providence, rhode island, for the 45th stop on the c-span bus 50 capitals tour. rhode island education commissioner ken wagner will be our guest on the bus, during washington journal starting at 8:30 a.m. eastern. >> for now it is stop number 44 of the c-span 50 capitals tour. it takes us to hartford, connecticut, nicknamed the insurance capital of the world, one of the oldest cities in the

u.s. joining us aboard the c-span bus is secretary of state denise merrill. secretary merrill, we have learned since the 2016 election that connecticut was one of those states that had its voting systems targeted by russian hackers. what specifically were the russians trying to do and how far did they get in connecticut? >> yes, good morning. they didn't get anywhere, frankly. we turned them back at the perimeter of our system, as we do most of these kinds of attempted incursions into our systems. i have to tell you, you know, it is a very common occurrence. the difference here was that it was identified as a russian agency ip address, and that got everyone's attention. they did not get into our system at all. and by the way, the system is the voter registry. it has nothing to do with the tabulation of ballots or any of that. so i would say we don't know really what they were attempting

to do. i was president of the national association in 2016, so i was pretty involved with all the things that went on in all the different states. we still don't really know because it was turned back in all but one state. so i personally think it's to sow discord in the american public. i think if they were there to change the list in any way, add names, take names off, we would see it pretty quickly because we have paper back up lists. all the states have paper back up lists. we have them in the cloud. we have them on the ground. so on election day, if someone came in and said i'm supposed to be on the list. i'm not on the list. you know, if that happened in any big number, we would know it immediately >> was there any rhyme or reason to the states that this russian address chose to attack? was there something about connecticut and these other states voter rolls that

represented a target in some way? >> i don't think so. we're now working with the department of homeland security who are the ones that alerted us to this. by the way, it is very delicate of course because there's a certain amount of security involved with all of this. we don't want to be announcing exactly what happened in a way because we don't want to encourage others to try it too. but the fact is that most of them being turned away just shows you we have firewalls and protections for our databases. this was no different. so i don't know. i don't think it was anything special to those 21 states. in fact, now we're hearing there may have been more. but this is just a matter of monitoring the traffic that goes in and out of the state, and i'm sure all states do that. >> secretary of state of connecticut, denise merrill is our guest aboard the c-span bus this morning. it is in hartford. we invite viewers to join in in this segment. a special line for connecticut

residents, 202-748-8000. all others can call in at 202-748-8001. the secretary of state will be taking your calls as we continue this discussion as viewers are calling in, how much money did connecticut get from that federal fund to improve election security, and how did you use it? >> our share was around 5 million dollars, very welcome because we can always improve things. so we are using it to bolster our existing firewalls and other systems. we're doing the kinds of checks that one does on electronic systems for the voter registry. our biggest concern frankly is at the local level. connecticut is a little unusual. we don't have county systems. so everything is done at the town level. we have 169 towns, ranging from towns of 2,000 to 200,000. so mostly small towns. and each of them has a router in their town that is the drop

point for this closed-loop system that is our voter registry. so what happens is when you register to vote, you register at the town level. the only people able to put names on our take names off the list are the local election officials, the registrars and in some instances the town clerks. so we're worried about the routers in those towns. we want to make sure that they are also as secure as the state system is because we house the servers at the state level. we also want to make sure that the local officials have sufficient training. they understand you have to change your pass word frequently. we are putting in other protections at the local level, such as, dual authentication for everything that goes on, making sure that everyone is logging in properly because another type of attack that we have seen in some places in the country, not in connecticut, are phishing e-mails. we're all familiar with those. those are the kinds of things you get on your own computer,

right? a message that looks valid and looks real, but if you go on it, they can get into our system. so those are the kinds of things we're focusing on with our money. we're hiring personnel to go into the towns, to check their systems, to give them training, and that sort of thing. we are also purchasing extra tabulators. the tabulators we bought in about 2002 with the help america vote act money. they are somewhat elderly. but they are also simple scanners. they are not connected to the internet. they are not connected to each other. so i want to make sure people understand that. we vote on paper ballots. we audit the ballots afterwards. but the tabulators have little cards in them, and those cards are what program the ballots. and so we want to make sure everything is working properly and up to date. so we are purchasing extra tabulators with some of the money in case some of them, you know, give out, either during or after the election. we will have some extras on

hand. >> you mentioned voter registration a minute ago. when is connecticut's voter registration deadline? >> in person voter registration deadline is the day before election, but you can also register right up till october 30th. if your registration must be in the office october 30th is the date. >> more than 15 states had their voter registration deadline passed yesterday. can you talk about why some states have such earlier voter registration deadlines and why connecticut is one of those states that pushes it pretty close to election day? >> yes. i mean, we are -- we are a state that encourages everyone to vote. i believe that voter registration should be as easy as possible and possible for as many people as possible. we do have voter registration what we call automatic voter registration at the dmv, for example. so our system is very easy to access. we have on-line voter

registration, if you have a connecticut driver's license. so i think that we are -- the one thing we don't have, though, is early voting. so we vote in person only on election day, on that tuesday. i have tried to pass a law that would allow earlier voting because i believe it does help, but -- so that's probably why many states have earlier voter registration deadlines so they can get their lists ready in time for the early voting. >> where has the hold up been in trying to pass that legislation? >> it is in our state constitution that we vote on tuesday. that tuesday, on election day. so it requires a constitutional amendment to change it. so that require a two thirds vote or a majority vote in two different legislative sessions, which means it takes about four years to get it on the ballot.

it was on the ballot, a version of it in 2014, but it was voted down narrowly. so i don't know why. i think it was a little confusing the way it was worded, but nonetheless it was -- i did attempt to get early voting. connecticut also has -- is a state that requires an excuse to get an absentee ballot which is another problem. and that's also in our state constitution. there's a list of reasons that you can get an absentee ballot. so unless you have one of those reasons, you can't get an absentee ballot either. linda is up first in orange, connecticut. linda, you are on with secretary merrill. >> caller: good morning, secretary merrill. i have a couple quick questions for you. the first being i remember many moons ago when someone from the state of connecticut would come into the classrooms with the voting levers, back when we had

levers, and it would instruct children from like age 5th grade on up on how to vote and this and that. and it would more or less be pre -- getting you ready to be a voter. we don't do that anymore. but on the same vein of questioning, over the years, i always take my children and now my grandchildren to the polling places, it's funny, depending on the poll worker, they will tell you that you can't bring the child. it is individual poll workers. of course i'm very insistent and i've always brought the child. my grandson, on primary day. i was wondering what really are our state laws? and is there any possibility in the future education that we could bring both those back to the schools, where the kids did actually see the voting and it makes you think hey i should

vote. i will take your answer. thank you for your time. >> thanks for your question. secretary merrill? >> absolutely. you are singing my song. i was a teacher once myself. i wish we could do more. there's a whole conversation we could have about why civic education has disappeared, largely, particularly in elementary school because it is not on the test. so that has really impaired our ability to teach about civic education. nonetheless, we keep trying. i think what you are referring to is years ago, i believe the registrars used to come in the classroom and demonstrate these things. there's so little time now in the curriculum that maybe they are just not doing it anymore. there is a requirement that they go register voters in the senior year of high school. they have to go into the high schools every may and bring all the registration materials and do that. but the rest of it is up to the teachers and frankly the parents. yes, you can bring your children into the polls. that's been established for many years in connecticut. and i think it is a wonderful idea.

you know, because it does, as you say, give the children a chance to see voting. i really think that the earlier we can get kids involved in all of civic life, the better. the more they will feel a part of it. in fact, i'm planning to introduce a bill this year that would allow 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote because again, there's a lot of evidence that the younger people feel like they're part of something, the more likely it is they will vote. it's one of the discouragements of my existence that we still have so many people in the united states now who don't vote. they don't even register to vote. we believe there's about a third of the eligible population that isn't even registered in our state as in many others. and that is discouraging. i think in my day, sounds like we're a similar age, you know, it was considered your duty as a citizen to vote. i wish we would get back there because that's where we need to be. >> to jonathan in leesburg, virginia. you're on with secretary

merrill. >> caller: i think it is important to at least highlight for some of the listeners that the systems that they were attacking as the secretary mentioned, it was like the registry. when you look at what their intent would be, it would probably be information gathering, to conduct those phishing attacks and to try to spam some of these people into misinformation like we saw in 2016, but on both sides. even though we might say a russian code, there's also ways to make it look like it's a russian address. we have chinese ip addresses. they even have a country code that identifies them. so they use other avenues to get their data outside of their country. we also have to be vigilant of that. >> jonathan, for those who don't know the lingo, what is a pii

information? >> it's personal identifying information. addresses, name, corresponding to those addresses, maybe e-mail addresses as well, corresponding names. it is more valuable when you have a name attached to certain information because it adds to what it would mean. if it was your name attached to an e-mail address, all right, now we know who the owner of that address is. that e-mail address is much more valuable to create a phishing e-mail or even a home address as well so you know where to send mail. >> jonathan, you're going a little bit in and out. before we lose you, can you say whether your current work is focused on the 2018 election at all when it comes to cybersecurity? >> i cannot -- [inaudible]. i would just only say to the people who are voting just to watch what they see on-line because my peers, the

millennials i feel are more susceptible to that misinformation because they are always on social media. as you saw in 2016, it was cheap to make fake accounts and stir the pot, and get people roused up and against each other. that's one of the biggest things i would add. >> jonathan, thanks for the call. secretary merrill, your thoughts? >> yes, i totally agree with the caller. along those lines, people are so talking about oh, we were hacked, you know, all the hacking. that to me is not the most important thing going on here. he's right. it's very likely that they were just trying to get data as are many others who are hitting our systems every day. and that's why i say i think the biggest problem here is the campaign of misinformation. but i would take this moment to remind people that these lists are public lists. this is not like a secret list they were trying to get into. the voter registry is public. it has to be because we have to know who is eligible to vote.

so for hundreds of years, this has been a public list. the difference is of course now you can get the list electronically. so in our state, for example, you can buy the list for a nominal fee. anyone can go on our website and get it. it's about 2 million voters. we don't give out all the information. we clearly don't give out people's social security numbers, for example, but their name, address, and basic data is public. so i think you have to keep it in perspective when you say oh, they are hacking into this list. it's a public list. it does change every single day. so it's not a static list. names are constantly being added and taken off. he's also right in that when you identify a russian agency ip address, it doesn't mean that's the only address they are using. they could use any address. they could use an ip address based in the united states. it's just that that was a tip-off, i guess, is that it was a russian agency. just to put it in perspective, again, we get about a million

hits a day on all our state systems. mostly data mining. people looking for your personal information. so it's just an easy way, i guess, to get that information, and that's why we think that probably it's more related the campaign of disinformation, which is much more difficult to deal with because you have freedom of speech. we can't just be shutting down websites. and you see that going on right now with google and microsoft and all the companies we're working with to try to stop the flow of disinformation, but that's very very difficult and a very different thing than what we're talking about here >> just a few minutes left with secretary of state denise merrill of connecticut. reminder we have the special line for connecticut residents 202-748-8000 but james has been waiting in ellenwood, georgia. james, go ahead. >> good morning. you know, i've been working with the election commission since about 2000.

i started working when bush gore. the reason i started was i just wanted to really see what was going on. everybody was talking about how you can manipulate votes and all of that stuff. so i got started in it. i'm now a manager at one of the polls. i think one of the things that -- i don't see why no other state wouldn't do it. you have to have a picture id, a state id, and i think we have about six of those. you got to know who is coming in there to vote. and that picture id will give you some kind of idea of who that person. is -- who that person is. and the second thing i was listening to your guest talking about bringing children into vote. and i have no problem with that. don't really push back against that. but sometimes you can have some

children in the polls that just -- you know, they are uncontrollable and you bump up against the machines. if you can't control your children, you bump up against the machine, that's 15 minutes of down time. bringing the kids in there is okay as long as you can control them. >> james, thank you for the call from ellenwood, georgia. secretary merrill, your thoughts? >> well, we have never had that kind of problem with children in the polls. in fact, we have very few people that actually take advantage of that. i think that's too bad. we have had it in place for many many years. as far as the id, the problem with the idea of having a very strict id law is that a lot of people may not have that particular kind of id. so we have always required some sort of identification. for 25 years now in connecticut. the states are all different in this regard. i think what was concerning to some of us was that suddenly

there seemed to be specific forms of id required in some states that would leave people out. that is a problem. >> how many different forms -- >> in connecticut you can -- >> go ahead. >> oh, yeah, i mean, you can use almost anything that has two pieces of information about who you are. and remember, it's only for people who are already on the list. so they have already provided a social security number, an address, a name, and so forth that has been placed on the list by the local election officials. so now you're just assuming that whoever is coming in, you're trying to show that they are the person on the list. so it's a second process. and for that reason, we allow all kinds of different ids that you can use. you can use some sort of utility bill. it has to be kind of official. it can't be a letter from your mom, but something with your name and address that shows you live at that address. you are trying to show that you are the person on the list. even if you don't have something

in your pocket, you left your wallet at home, whatever, you can sign an affidavit to show that you are the person on that list. and then we allow you to vote. >> james is waiting in newark, new jersey. go ahead. >> caller: yes, good morning, c-span. good morning, secretary. [inaudible]. >> the homeless people in connecticut? >> explain your concern a little bit more, james. >> caller: my heart goes out with the homeless. i'm very concerned about the homeless people. >> you mean and weather -- you and mean whether they are allowed to vote? >> no, how they are being taken care of in connecticut.

>> a larger question for you, secretary of state merrill, but you can also work in the voting aspect as well, if you could. >> yeah, actually we've made tremendous progress on homelessness in connecticut in the last couple of years, particularly among veterans. but i don't, you know, i don't deal with that, but i do have -- we do deal with homeless people and their right to vote. so even if you're homeless, you have a right to vote. and many people are not homeless because they want to be homeless. so you can provide an address of wherever you live at the moment of the election. that is your address, your residence. so we do make an effort to do outreach to the homeless shelters to get people registered to vote and to make sure that they feel included because many times, for example, in the last few months, i have been a lot of the food share programs here in connecticut where there are people coming for food because they are homeless or without food.

and we are registering them to vote. and i think it's working because they feel in the society. i think it's terribly important that everybody understand everyone is part of this. the more people that are voting, the better off we all are. >> last call for you. beverly is in amarillo, texas. good morning. >> caller: thank you for allowing me to call. i used to be a republican. i'm still a republican. but i'm not voting, and i'm not going to vote for democrats or republicans because the ugliest word in the english language for 2,000 years, the uglyiest word in the english language was abortion. the democrats made the act legal and now they call it choice. that's very disturbing to me. but then two, then we have people, many many people demonstrating in the streets for legal abortion.

and that stops fire trucks from getting to fires. it stops me from getting to the drugstore when i need drugs. it stops me from getting to the hospital if i'm seriously in need of help. now that bothers me a great deal, that these demonstrators, these people who are guilty of -- really guilty of murder, that are keeping people from getting -- sick people from getting to places they need to be. thank you. >> are you worried about demonstrators on election day in amarillo, texas? >> no, no, i'm worried about what i see on television. amarillo is a pretty clean-cut city. you know, one of the most conservative cities in the united states. one of the most conservative counties is randall here. so i'm proud to be a resident of randall. but still in all, we're not getting anywhere. we're not getting anywhere. not even -- when you have people that demonstrate amongst the finest people -- one of the finest people in the world that

goes to the supreme court, but he's -- it's just useless -- to have this kind of behavior in our country. >> got your point. secretary merrill, i will give you the final two or three minutes here. >> i would just say that i'm aware that this issue divides our country as many others do. and i think it's extremely unfortunate if people's reaction is not to vote because your vote is your voice. so if you don't vote, you've lost your right to complain about almost anything in my view. you still have to pick something. and it may not be perfect. but it is your right and frankly your duty as a citizen to vote. >> secretary merrill, on election day, where are you going to be in connecticut? >> i will be all over the state at some of the polling sites, but of course we have several systems in place, lots of checks

and balances. i have a group of attorneys who volunteer to be our eyes and ears out there in the polling places. i will be in my office part of the time, but i have a lot of people answering the phones. we have a hot line, all kinds of things. so i'm hoping we have a great election day. frankly, the last few elections in connecticut have been the smoothest that i have ever been part of. so i'm hoping everyone comes out to vote. >> we want to thank you for your time as we get down to crunch-time leading up to the election. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> and we also want to thank our cable partners in connecticut, comcast in hartford especially as we have continued this c-span 50 capitals tour. before we leave connecticut, ahead of today's tour stop in hartford, c-span spent some time with the governor of connecticut, dan milloy to talk about some of the top issues in the state. >> governor, as you know, some

of the economic news coming out of connecticut has not been very positive, anemic economic growth, high debt, high taxes, what's your case for connecticut's economy? >> well, actually the most recent news is pretty much very positive, rapid earnings growth in the state, seeing gross domestic product increase at very serious rates. in fact, we're leading new england currently in those categories. so we're making some real progress. i think part of the issue is connecticut was hit worse by some of the downturn in the 2008, 9 cycle. i think some of it was that we were an older industrial state that had not recognized its full potential in additive or precision manufacturing, something that my administration has focused on, and it's one of the reasons that we're making

helicopters, jet engines and submarines in the state still. and of course we have also seen some changes in the insurance industry, but now seeing some rapid growth in that area as well. connecticut's an older state. we have really cold winters and we have really hot summers. it is not a cheap place to be in business. on the other hand, if you measured connecticut by its output, we do -- we rank very high on a national basis as one of the states or internationally as one of -- if we were a stand alone country, high value added, important work is done here. we have highly educated workforce, higher than most other states, certainly in the top three. we're in the top three for concentration in aerospace as well. so we have a lot of things going for us, but we did have to clean shop a little bit. government is much smaller since i took office, 12% on the

executive side of government. i'm very proud of that. we have recovered 113% of the jobs lost in the private sector so we're ahead on the private sector, smaller government. that sounds like a pretty good success to me. >> then why is it that your approval rating is so low currently in the state? >> well, you know what? i didn't bargain for a high approval rating. i bargained to do the job. let's go back to something you referenced, debt. during my administration, we have eliminated 45 billion dollars. that's with a b dollars in outstanding obligations to our employees. that doesn't come easily. that doesn't come without a fight, and that doesn't come without ruffling a lot of feters. -- feathers. we also had to offset some of the bad decisions that had been made by predecessors with raising some number of taxes so we could remain afloat. so raising taxes, having fights

with employees over outstanding unfunded obligations is not the easiest way to become popular. but it is the easiest way to do the job the right way, something that my predecessors quite frankly had failed to do and something that the legislature had failed to do other a number of years -- over a number of years. >> governor, what did you not get done that you wanted to get done? >> you know, actually number one on that list would be to take 18, 19 and 20-year-olds out of an adult criminal justice system and treat them more like what they are, juveniles. i think that if our nation refocused its efforts on doing just that one thing, understanding that young people make mistakes and that they shouldn't be permanently burdened necessarily with a conviction that may make it impossible for them to be educated, impossible for them to get decent housing, and impossible for them to get a good job. if we just came to grips with what we already know, and i will

give you an example. we know that 18 and 19-year-olds shouldn't drink. and yet we treat them like adults. we know that they shouldn't buy cigarettes. and yet in many states you can't buy cigarettes now till the age of 21. these are things that we routinely admit about our youth in this nation, but we refuse to have a court system that addresses that lack of maturity. >> what's the difference between being the mayor of stanford and the governor of connecticut? >> you know, the jobs are very similar. the chief executive officer, the person who gets held responsible for results, good and bad. i love my home city of stanford where i was born and raised and where my mom and dad raised eight children. i was happy to become governor to actually take on the tough issues that i knew were going to be tough, and i'm certainly happy to hand it over to someone else to continue that work in the next four or eight years on

whoever's watch comes in. having said that, you know, i'm very gratified that we lowered crime and made connecticut one of the very safest states in the nation, that we lowered our prison population very dramatically at the same time that recidivism declined and the number of crimes declined in our state. very proud of the fact that we now have the highest graduation rates from high school in our state's history, and that follows six years of decline before i became governor. i'm very proud of all those private sector jobs, and i'm very proud that government's gotten smaller. we've done a lot of very important things in connecticut, including as i sit before you, we have more fortune 500 companies by a third than we had when i became governor a little less than eight years ago. if you measure us on those types of issues, quality of life, we're doing pretty darn well and

pretty well to our competitive states. >> was it a psychological blow when ge left the state? >> i think it was -- well, it looks like it was probably a pretty big blow to ge. i mean when they decided that they were going to move 200 jobs out of connecticut, their stock was selling for $28.42 last time i checked it was at about $12.50. i'm not sure that every decision ge made along the way was the right one. we're very happy to have kept the major portions of ge that we had. if another state is going to pay 140 million dollars for 200 jobs, so be it. i think folks made a big deal out of it, but as i will go back to this, we have more fortune 500 companies based in connecticut than we had just a few years ago. that's significant. that's the predictor of the future. ge quite frankly was a predictor of the past. >> governor malloy, a couple of national issues want to get your

take on. let's talk about healthcare. you are sitting there in hartford, home to several large insurance companies what about universal healthcare or expansion of medicaid? what's the status in connecticut? >> well, we were one of the early states to expand medicaid, even before obama care and we were very proud to do that. quite frankly that made us better prepared for obama care when it came about. that's why connecticut led the nation with respect to reducing the uninsured in our state and we're very proud of that accomplishment. we're also proud of the fact that we have bent the curve on medicaid expenditures. we're now spending less per person than we did previously. now albeit we have more people insured under medicaid or obama care, but the reality is is that we've learned the important lessons that pre-care or understanding what one's difficulties are earlier in an illness actually pays in the long run. >> another issue that is being

debated and talked about right now in washington is trade. there's a new trade agreement among the north american nations. what's your initial take? >> well, i think it's -- you know, i was just reviewing it before i came to speak to you. you know, it's not a gigantic change. and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. the unintended consequences may end up being greater than the intended consequences, and what i would point to about that is if you look at the provisions, probably what we're going to see is more luxury cars made in the united states, but we're going to see a lot fewer economy cars made in the united states. and whether that will be a good balance or a bad balance for our economy remains to be seen. on the dairy side, i don't think there's much of a dairy change at all. canada promises to do something about their dairy system sometime in the future.

if that's the biggest result, then tell me what the result was because it's not evident from anything that's come out of the white house thus far. having said that, i very much support the idea that people working in the automotive industry make at least $16 an hour on the continent. but what that means for jobs and whether that's a retention of jobs or whether we lose jobs will again remain to be seen. >> how much interaction do you have with the trump white house? >> a fair amount. you know, i'm probably not one of their favorite governors because i don't mind pointing out that what the president has done to our society has not been helpful. i think his sexism, his racism, that sneaks into his discussions on the public record are disheartening. it makes it hard to teach

children in our schools how to converse appropriately when the president himself doesn't engage in that kind of rhetoric. having said that, this administration has managed to do some good things, and i support those good things. but overall, you know, i'm not a supporter of the administration. i think their stance on immigration and refugees has been despicable if not immoral. so i don't -- i don't hide when i agree with him and i don't hide when i disagree with him >> the president in fact has labelled connecticut a sanctuary state. is that true? >> i don't -- you know, no, i don't think it is true. i think it's one of the misstatements that the president has made, and he unfortunately then tends to repeat those misstatements. we have a letter from jeff sessions actually saying that we're not a sanctuary state. and that our laws are in full

conformance with federal statute. you probably would have to tell the president 100 times before he would hear you. >> what is it like to be a lame duck governor in the last couple of months of your office? >> it is kind of interesting. i was a lame duck mayor for a while before i became governor. you know, you -- we take stock of what we have accomplished. we prepare to help the next administration, republican or democrat, come into office. we're ready to help in any way that we can with information and i feel good about what we've done. it is interesting that some of the long-term investments that we made starting way back in 2011 are now paying off and that's why our job numbers are getting much better, much more rapidly. that's why commercial growth and real estate growth have rebounded. that's why increased income at

4.2% in the last quarter was pretty spectacular. so it does take a while to turn a ship around. and i think someone's going to enjoy sailing it in the future. >> what's next for you? >> you know, another profession, another challenge. i'm going to some teaching initially, but look forward to doing other things as well. >> governor malloy is the second term governor of the state of connecticut. we appreciate your hosting us on our 50 capitals tour. >> great to be with you. >> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up thursday morning, former trump presidential campaign manager corey lewandowski discusses president trump's role in the 2018 midterm elections. then an author will join us to talk about the state of conservativism in the u.s., the subject of his most recent book "the corrosion of conservativism, why i left the

right". be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern thursday morning. join the discussion. >> with midterm elections 27 days away, c-span is your primary source for campaign 2018. tomorrow our debate coverage includes the race in iowa's third congressional district between republican representative david young and democrat. that's live at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. the next day, new mexico senator faces republican marc rich and third party candidate gary johnson at a debate in albuquerque. that's live friday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> this weekend on american history tv on c-span 3, saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, on lectures in history, indiana university bloomington professor steven andrews on conspiracy culture in american history and how conspiracy theories have

changed over time. >> now, is it a problem in america that people have a secret society at yale that -- and with yale's connection to the intelligence community, is it a problem that they gather in places that are defined as secret; right? is it a problem that they are there without press, meeting and chatting? maybe, maybe not. is it a problem that they put on robes on one of the first days and have a ceremony in front of a giant statue of an owl in a ceremony. it's weirder; right? >> sunday at 4:30 p.m., former iowa senator tom harkin, author "the americans with disabilities act" explores the history of laws that impact americans with disabilities as well as several key supreme court cases. >> one good decision in 99, it

was a georgia case. again, it was two women who were put in an institution, and they had argued that they didn't want to be there, that they should be free to live on their own, out in the community, and this made its way all the way to the supreme court. and the supreme court sided with them and said yeah, the constitution, the least restrictive environment is a constitutionally based right of persons with disabilities. imagine that. >> and at 6:00, on american artifacts, we travel to france to visit key battlefields and monuments to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of world war i, including a visit to the argon forest for the story of the lost battalion. >> there are 554 men who were cut off from the main body of the division. they're from two different regiments, the 307th and the

308th, infantry, and they are mixed companies. they are led by a major, an attorney from wall street. the germans are surrounding them from the hills here and firing. the men take cover near what they call the mill. meanwhile, the rest of the division can't reach them. >> watch on american history tv, this weekend on c-span 3. >> coming up next on c-span 2, a senate homeland security hearing on potential threats to the u.s. that's followed by president trump's signing legislation today that allows pharmacists to offer lower drug prices for patients. later, a discussion on u.s. global leadership and the state of democracy around the world. >> homeland security secretary

kirsten nielsen and fbi director christopher wray were on capitol hill today for a hearing on national security threats. topics included domestic and international terrorism, cybersecurity and aviation safety. at one point, director wray was also asked by senator kamala harris about the fbi's investigation into sexual assault allegations against supreme court justice brett kavanaugh. this hearing is 2 1/2 hours. ::